Reading politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, or stacking shelves at John Lewis – which position holds more cachet and promise? Most would plump for the former: the glamorous degree read by both David Cameron and Ed Miliband, a passport to three years of punting, parties and a superlative education.

But getting a foot in the door at one of Britain’s most successful retailers, even at a lowly level, is an enticing prospect in these tough economic times. More than 600 school leavers have applied for apprentice positions with John Lewis this summer, while at Marks & Spencer, there have been 3,000 people queuing up for just 30 school-leaver trainee posts – a level of interest that even Oxford can’t match.

Later this week, when A-level students learn their fate, the thoughts of most will turn to university; but a small and increasing number are being urged to pick up the phone to a company rather than a college.

Michael Bray, 19, works as a sales assistant in the china and gifts department at the Welwyn Garden City branch of John Lewis, where his specialities are clocks and frames. He says the best decision he ever made was turning down a place at university in favour of one of the sought-after John Lewis apprentice positions.

Bray got two Bs and a D at A-level, good enough grades to win him a place to study film and TV production at the University of Hertfordshire. “I was at that sort of age when I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he remembers. “My friends were all applying to university, it just seemed the obvious next step.” He ended up going to university but soon realised that he had made a big mistake. “I just felt like I was wasting my time, I wasn’t doing anything that would help me get a job. I spent a lot of time growing up in my first year.”

Despite passing his first-year exams, he dropped out and applied to join the retailer’s scheme, which promises to give school leavers on-the-job training. “I don’t regret it at all. I love serving customers and talking to them every day. I’ve learnt far more in my year here than I would have done at university. I feel like I am making progress every day. In terms of confidence, giving presentations and developing my career, I am much, much better at John Lewis.”

He hopes to be running a section of the store, in charge of as many as 12 employees, by the time he would have graduated. And the perks at John Lewis, including the famous annual staff bonus, are an added attraction.

For many school leavers, the promise of a regular pay packet, rather than having to pay up to £9,000 in annual tuition fees, is the main reason why the world of work is looking so attractive. Katja Hall, chief policy director for the Confederation of British Industry, says: “Faced with £30,000 debt and a tougher job market, sixth-formers are much more savvy in shopping around for options which give them the edge. Top-quality training, a guaranteed job and avoiding tuition loans is a big carrot to dangle. Universities need to wake up to the fact that big employers are now competing directly with them for the brightest students.”

Some of the country’s biggest companies, including those associated with glamorous graduate-trainee schemes, are increasingly hunting out bright school leavers: Unilever, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline have all received thousands of applications from this year’s A-level students. Nearly all have responded by substantially increasing the size of their school-leaver programmes, with some offering not just on-the-job training, but also the opportunity to study for a full degree.

Eleanor Sharpe, 20, from Lincolnshire, got a good clutch of A-levels – two As and a C – and was offered a place by three universities, including Nottingham to read economics, which she intended to accept.

Her father, a plumber, and her mother were keen for her to take up the place. But by chance she heard on a local radio station about an apprenticeship at KPMG, the accountancy firm. Instead of going to university, she could start work straight away at KPMG’s headquarters in Canary Wharf, auditing companies, while studying part-time at Exeter University, with her fees and accommodation paid for by the company. “I always wanted to work in the City,” she says. “If you grow up in rural Lincolnshire, it looks very exciting.”

The apprenticeship is six years, but by the end of it she will be a qualified accountant. She feels she has the best of both worlds – a degree as well as a job in the City with a starting salary of £21,500. “It’s not an easy route. It’s very, very hard, but it is rewarding.”

She is the only one of her group of friends to spurn university; but this is a position that many apprentices find themselves in. Lucy Moore, 19, from Reading took up an apprentice accountant’s position at Siemens, the engineering firm, instead of a place at university. “My friends were a bit shocked because they know I’m a studious, academic person and they didn’t think I’d be the one who chose not to go. In hindsight, they’re all saying how jealous they are I’m out there in the working world and they’re bored of studying.”

Yet much of the education establishment remains sniffy about A-level pupils with decent sets of grades who turn down university places. Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, says: “The great weakness of our education system has been that it has been geared towards sending pupils to university, and if you don’t go to university, people think of themselves as some sort of failure.”

Part of the blame for that must lie at the door of New Labour, which set a target to send 50 per cent of school leavers to university, up from 15 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s. That target has nearly been reached, peaking at 49 per cent two years ago, before dipping marginally last year when tuition fees were introduced.

Others feel that schools have a blinkered attitude. Dan Moynihan, the chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 14 secondary academies in London, admits the criticism is fair: “Nearly every teacher has been through the tertiary education system. That’s what they know.” But he is determined to change that attitude: “We are explicit that progress through to a good job is just as good as going to a good university.”

He says a good apprentice scheme is probably a better option for many pupils than some degree courses now on offer. “It would be wrong to encourage students to do some degrees at some universities, just so we can say they went on to university – because some of them are just not worth doing, frankly.”

Emma Brown, 22, from the Wirral, is proof that a career forged while still a teenager is ample compensation for missing out on hours spent in the student bar. She works at Unilever’s detergent and shampoo headquarters in Port Sunlight, helping to develop washing powder capsules. “I get a real thrill seeing products on the shelves that I know I worked really hard on. It’s an amazing experience.”

After taking three good A-levels, she turned down an offer to read chemistry at Sheffield University in favour of a place on one of Unilever’s school-leaver apprentice programmes. Now she works full time at Unilever’s research and development lab, and studies in her spare time for her degree. “You have to be organised, and sometimes it is tough studying after a long day at work, but it was a no-brainer for me.”

She says most of her school friends have now just graduated – “And they are mostly very jealous of me. They are all finding it hard to get a job; they are being told they have just not got enough experience.”

Indeed, a fifth of recent graduates work in unskilled or semi-skilled work such as waitering, at check-outs, or as secretaries; Oxford has produced more bar staff than accountants in the past three years. A degree no longer guarantees a passage to a good job, and an apprenticeship is likely to become an attractive option for many of the 300,000 A-level students who get their results this week.